Based upon the three verses of the Monkees’ song “I Don’t Think You Know Me At All”.
By Enola Jones
ONE – THE SCHISM – OW
Ezra looked up as a lavender-scented whirlwind entered his room. “I have it, Ezra! I have it!”
“Please refrain from sharin’,” Ezra muttered under his breath. Standing up, he asked, “What do you have, Mother?”
Her face lit from within, Maude replied, “Our next windfall, my boy! We can be on a train – ah, good, you’re already packed! – we can be on a train to New Orleans in the morning!”
“What is in New Orleans?” Ezra asked tiredly.
“Only the richest man in the Tri-State area! Amd he’s been newly widowed!” She went on to detail a con whereby she would marry him and she and Ezra would split his immense wealth.
“That’s it?” Ezra asked, frowning deeper. “That is the kind of life you’ve planned – for me?”
“Well, of course, dear boy!” she laughed. “What else is there?”
Ezra snorted. “Your goals, Mother. Your trivial, small, petty goals. Not mine.”
“Ezra – what are you sayin’?”
“I’m sayin’ I want no part of this.” He closed the flap on his saddlebag. “My goals are different, and I’m going to go after them.”
She grabbed his arm. “Ezra, you are my son—“
“That may be so…” He twisted free. “But it’s painfully obvious that you know nothing about me.” He pulled on his emerald coat and slid on his hat. The saddlebags, he flung over one shoulder.
Defeated, Maude just stared at him. “Where are you headed?”
“West. Toward Fort Laramie for now. Beyond that – wherever fate takes me.”
And with that, Maude Standish found herself alone in the room.
If you think I want the life you choose to live
I don’t think I want the love you’ve got to give
If you think my goals could be so trivial and small
Then I don’t think you know me at all.
Five pairs of eyes widened and five jaws dropped as the Twins walked into the office. The sight that had produced this reaction was so unusual as to be close to impossible.
Vin was dressed better than Ezra. His sandy curls were even held in check, pulled back in a small, neat ponytail. He looked from one man to another. “What?”
“Are you two all right?” Chris asked.
The Twins looked at each other, then back at them. “Yes,” Ezra responded. “Why?”
JD pointed at them. “Cause, Ez, you’re in jeans – and Vin’s in harmony!”
The Twins chuckled. “Armani, JD,” Ezra corrected.
“Yeah, I got a date for lunch,” Vin grinned.
“Must be some date,” Buck said, shaking his head.
“Childhood friend,” Vin smiled. “Millie Mandin.”
That caused a sensation. “The model?” four voices gasped as one. Chris just stared.
Without another word – just a playful smirk – Vin left the office.
A few hours later, Chris was deeply involved in paperwork when his head suddenly snapped up. He lay down his pen and waited.
Sure enough, a knock sounded on his door. He didn’t bother to answer verbally. Come in.
Ezra walked in, a crushed-looking Vin right behind him. Ezra leaned his head toward a chair, and when Chris nodded, Vin sank into it with an exhausted sigh.
“Bad time?” Chris asked unnecessarily.
Vin groaned. “The worst. I know people change – but damn!”
Chris winced. “What happened?”
“She went from the sweet, kind kid I grew up with to one of the ‘beautiful people’. I swear it was like… like she stepped right outta the pages of one of those fashion books!”
“One of those that thinks she can make it just her looks?” Ezra put in poetically. At their glares, he spread his hands apologetically. “Just trying to lighten the mood.”
When both Vin and Chris chuckled, Ezra knew he’d succeeded. He beamed.
“Sounds like there’s a wall between you,” Chris mused.
Vin nodded. “I embrace my past. It made me who I am. She rejects it and when she found out I wasn’t like her… that she didn’t really know me any more…” He shook his head and looked at his linkbrothers.
“I tell ya, guys – if bein’ one of the ‘beautiful people’ means ya gotta be vain, self-centered, and only do ‘beautiful’ things – well, ugly’s lookin’ better an’ better right now.”
Born between the covers of your fashion books
You think you can make it, girl, on just your looks
You could never bring me up, between us stands a wall
And I don’t think you know me at all.
Sarah leaned back against the headboard and sighed. “Three minds.”
“Yes,” Chris nodded.
“In one body.”
“Yes.”
“And now we’re alone.”
”Yes.”
“They’ve….discon….disen…”
“Disengaged,” Chris smiled. “It’s to give us privacy.”
Slowly, Sarah nodded. Then she sighed once more. “Chris, I’m sorry. We’ve gone over this—“
“And we’ll go over it again,” Chris said. “As many times as you need to.”
She shook her head. “This is…”
“I know. We thought the other was gone forever.”
“Then we’re reunited.” She waved a hand. “And you’re some kind of… of…”
“Telepath,” he supplied. “At least, that’s what Ezra says a writer named H. G. Wells calls us.”
She smiled shakily.
“Look – I want to show you something.” He pulled a small painting from the closet. “Buck actually painted this, believe it or not.”
Sarah smiled as her fingertips brushed the canvas. “It’s me… like I was before.”
“Before the fire, yes. What kept me sane was believing in the promise in that smile – painted or not.”
“Yeah, smiles have a way of changing people’s directions,” Sarah chuckled.
Chris touched her cheek. “I must’ve known you a hundred times in my dreams… in my memories…”
Sarah put down the picture and turned away. “Yes… but I’ve changed. You’ve changed. I don’t think you know me at all anymore. I know I don’t know you.”
Chris put his hands on her shoulders. “Does that mean we can’t even try?”
A moment later, she spun in his arms and enfolded him in a warm hug.
They would start again. And they would be stronger than ever.
Believing in the promise painted in your smile
Changed what I was running from, girl, all the while
I’ve known you a hundred times in memories I recall
Still, I don’t think you know me at all
No, I don’t think you know me at all
Return to The Magnificent Seven
Return to The Realm